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Site Updates - Dando in Plymouth

Amongst these sources are details from the newly released British Postal Service Appointment Books, available from Ancestry. I found information for other family members too but you need to be careful about the dates of the appointments as these can be misleading. For instance, it's believed my grandfather joined the Post Office on the telephones side after he was demobbed in 1919 but the appointment books state he started in 1925. This is more than likely when he became established, as opposed to unestablished, and not when he first worked for the Post Office.

Very little is known of his early years but Charles was a dentist who married in Saffron Walden, Essex, in 1900 but by 1910 he was in Plymouth in Devon. He is somewhat easier to trace once in Plymouth as he appears in various street directories and I also have copies of some of his correspondence to the Dental Board over the years.

One recent discovery is that Charles worked in Bedford Street, one of the main streets in Plymouth before the Blitz destroyed most of the city centre. He can be found at No 34 in the 1923 Kelly's Directory, probably above the main shop which belonged to Webb & Son Ltd who made suitcases. The 1910 and 1914 Kelly's Directories don't mention Charles but instead, located there with Webb & Son is a firm called McDonalds Ltd who made artificial teeth. It's not known whether Charles had any associations with McDonalds or whether two dental firms being located in the same building at different times is simply a co-incidence. Of course, there's always the possibility that the building was already kitted out, making it the ideal premises for Charles Dando to move his business into.